College Student Accidentally Got Part of a Drone in the Mail

Drones are constantly in the news these days, because they are being used more and more before we ever had to chance to learn more about them. One college student got to learn a lot more about them anyone thought they could after he accidentally received part of a very expensive drone used by the federal government.

He didn’t order it or even knew it was coming. It was accidentally delivered it to him. Drones aren’t just used by the military to attack enemy combatants on foreign soil without having to scramble jets or send military forces into harm’s way. They are also used by environmental agencies such as the National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration to monitor wildlife movements and activity on the oceans. The NOAA’s “Puma” drone, the one sent to the unnamed college kid, is used to monitor the movements of debris and garbage in the world’s oceans. They accidentally sent a pretty important part of one of their $350,000 unmanned planes to a guy who calls himself “Seventy_Seven” on Reddit. That whole Healthcare.gov snafu is suddenly starting to make a lot more sense now.

NOAA claims that UPS messed up the delivery. Apparently, they accidentally dropped off NOAA’s drone with a weightlifting bench that the unidentified Reddit user ordered. Once he realized what he had in his possession, he opened the box, snapped a few shots of the contents and posted the pictures on Reddit so we could all enjoy the hilarious mistake. NOAA officials said they are working with the unintended recipient to get their precious cargo back and he seems to be cooperating with them. However, they might want to hurry it along. If he’s anything like the college students we know, he’ll start to get bored and find a way to turn it into some kind of bong.